Hook and chain assemblies have commonly been employed to lift, tow or restrain loads. Generally, the hook and chain assemblies include at least one closed or grab type hook having a throat which will accept and hold a link of the chain, but that will not permit adjacent links to slide through the throat. A common problem experienced with grab hooks, however, is that the retained link will frequently slip from the throat before tension is applied to the chain, thereby requiring the chain to be reconnected to the hook. The frequent slipping of the chain can cause a great deal of wasted time and effort, as well as aggravation to an operator attempting to utilize the hook and chain assembly.
Although many efforts have been made to develop hooks with chain retaining features, the efforts to date have failed to produce a hook of simple and inexpensive design that can reliably retain a chain link prior to the application of tension. It is therefore an object of the invention to provide a hook, of simple and inexpensive design, with a retaining mechanism for reliably retaining a chain placed within the throat of the hook.